The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
University of Connecticut No. 1 overall seed for NCAA tourney
Huskies No. 1 overall seed for NCAA tourney for 13th time
STORRS —The UConn women’s basketball team is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Division I tournament for the 13th time and could see some familiar faces in the subregional being held at Gampel Pavilion.
Northeast Conference champion Saint Francis (Pa.), which lost to UConn in the first round in 1999 and 2002, draws the Huskies in the first round on Saturday (11 a.m., ESPN2) with a potential second-round showdown with MAAC regular season and tournament champion Quinnipiac.
UConn (32-0), ranked first in the final Associated Press poll for the 15th time, will be playing at least one NCAA tournament game in the state of Connecticut for the 29th time.
The only time all of the Huskies’ NCAA tourney games were played outside of Connecticut came during the 2009-10 season when the subregionals were held in Norfolk, Va., the regionals in Dayton, Ohio and the Final Four in San Antonio, Tex.
UConn is 55-4 in NCAA tour-
nament games played in Connecticut and enter the tournament on a 26-game winning streak in games played in the Nutmeg State. At Gampel Pavilion, UConn has won 38 in a row and has a 40-2 career record in the tournament.
If UConn reaches the Final Four, it would not only extend the Huskies’ record for consecutive Final Four appearances to 12, but Auriemma would move by Pat Summitt to set the tournament record for most games coached.
UConn joins Georgia, Stanford, Tennessee and Texas as the only teams to appear in at least 30 Division I women’s basketball tournaments.
The Huskies returned four starters from a team that was undefeated heading into the 2017 Final Four. The Huskies’ quest for an unprecedented fifth straight national title ended in the national semifinals with an overtime loss to Mississippi State.
While UConn can’t meet Mississippi State until the national championship game, the Huskies could meet reigning national champion South Carolina in the Albany regional final. The Gamecocks are the No. 2 seed in UConn’s bracket, Florida State and Georgia are seeded fourth.
Quinnipiac will meet Miami in the first round. In last year’s tournament, the Bobcats were sent to the subregional hosted by Miami. After upsetting Marquette in the first round, Quinnipiac beat the host Hurricanes to advance to the regionals for the first time.
This is the third time in the last four tournaments that the NEC tournament winner was matched up with UConn in the first round and the sixth time the NEC representative has drawn the Huskies.